Brussels offers twenty-seven to make sanctions against users of services resulting from the operation of victims compulsory. NGOs criticize this proposal.
by Philippe Jacqué (Brussels, European office)
This scourge officially makes 7,000 victims per year on the European continent. “But human trafficking is much more important than this statistic, says Ylva Johansson, the European commissioner in charge of internal affairs. Many victims remain unknown.” According to her, the economic situation, the digitization of the company and the Russian invasion of Ukraine “have opened new possibilities to exploit the vulnerability of people with a view to financial gains”.
For all these reasons, the European Commission decided, Monday, December 19, to strengthen its arsenal against human trafficking, by revising its directive which dates back to 2011. Brussels first intends to widen the definition of the deals with human beings by taking into account forced marriage and illegal adoptions. According to Europol, which does not give figures, these cases are currently increasing. With this modification, the twenty-seven will be obliged to “erect these practices in criminal offense in their national law as constituent elements of the trafficking of human beings”, it is said in Brussels.
The Commission also offers the twenty-seven and parliament, which will have to negotiate this text, to explicitly refer to trafficking in human beings committed or facilitated via Internet platforms and other social media. Today, criminal organizations are massively resorting to these tools to attract their victims. Half of the trafficking in human beings concerns, according to Europol, sexual exploitation; the other, forced work or begging.
“very limited impact”
More fundamentally, the community executive intends to make sanctions compulsory both against individuals and against companies responsible for offenses in this area. Until now, sanctions were only an option proposed by the directive. However, according to the latest data available, dating from 2019 and 2020, so nearly 15,000 individuals are suspected of trafficking in human beings in the member states, only 6,000 are prosecuted and 3,000, convicted. A failure for European public authorities.
“The EU must have more strict rules to prevent and combat trafficking in human beings and protect the victims, ensures M me Johansson. We can only tolerate users of service resulting of the exploitation of victims, having knowledge of these offenses, remain unpunished. “
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